O’Malley To Attend BayStat Meeting

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Gov. Martin O’Malley is assembling his team of environmental advisers to weigh the state of the Chesapeake Bay.

O’Malley will attend Tuesday’s BayStat meeting, which gathers his secretaries of agriculture, environment, natural resources and planning, along with other staff and scientists to guide state resources in cleaning the bay.

Maryland is under a federal mandate to clean the bay of runoff, which creates oxygen-depriving dead zones.

O’Malley has had mixed results this year on his environment initiatives. Lawmakers nixed his measures to mandate utilities buy wind energy and curb nitrogen pollution from septic systems and funding for a bay cleanup program was again curbed because of economic woes.

However, lawmakers did approve two O’Malley measures aimed at increasing use of electric cars.